


I think of U periodically

by Bellakitse



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Chemistry puns, High School, M/M, Science Pick-Up Lines, Teen Romance, The Author Regrets Nothing, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 12:33:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19085119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellakitse/pseuds/Bellakitse
Summary: ‘Are you made of copper and tellurium? Because you're CuTe.’"Micheal, are you really using the periodic table to awkwardly flirt with the emo boy?" Isobel asks incredulously.***Michael uses science to woo Alex.





	I think of U periodically

**Author's Note:**

> These chemistry jokes are not my own, no way am I that smart. In fact, I took Zoology and Forensic in high school just to get out of taking Chemistry because I knew I would have failed it, hard. 
> 
> Google chemistry pickup line and you will find all of them.

Michael Guerin has a massive, ridiculously embarrassing crush on Alex Manes. It’s taken a few weeks of absolute denial and blind gay panic that resolved itself with a bisexual awakening, but Michael has come to accept this, he like Alex Manes, _a lot_ and it started in his fifth-period chemistry class.

He’s known Alex since they were 11 and Michael moved back to Roswell. Everyone _knows_ Alex, one of the Manes boys but nothing like his straight-laced brothers. The black sheep of the Manes clan, with his piercings, emo clothes, black eyeliner and the worst kept secret in town that the youngest Manes boy likes other boys. There’s more to him than walking stereotype he plays up, logically Michael knows that. But it’s not till chemistry class when he hears Alex tell Liz Ortecho the most ridiculous chemistry puns that he really takes notice of the other boy.

“What do you call an acid with a bad attitude?” he hears Alex ask a table over with a grin that takes over his whole face and mesmerizes Michael, he’s never seen the other boy smile so openly. Given the hostility of some of their classmates in his general direction, Alex usually carries a frown and ‘don’t fuck with me’ look on his face.

Liz sighs but Michael sees her lips twitch as she raises an eyebrow at Alex.

If possible, Alex’s smile grows when larger. “A-mean-oh-acid,” he says with a chuckle at his own lame joke while Liz rolls her eyes.

“I can’t believe some people think you’re cool, Alex.” Liz shakes her head, fondness in her voice. “That was terrible.”

Alex shrugs unbothered.

“I make bad chemistry puns because all the good ones argon,” Alex answers with another smirk.

“That was sodium funny,” Liz says dryly, joining in and earning herself a bark of laughter from Alex.

And just like that, Alex Manes without even trying has Michael’s full and undivided attention. And now that Michael can’t look away, he starts to realize somethings about Alex Manes. Like the fact that for every scowl he has for Valenti and the football team, he has a bright blinding smile for the Ortecho sisters and Maria Deluca. Like the fact that he’s not just some skater boy cliché from an Avril Lavigne song. But a guy who loves to play guitar while his friends dance and sing along. A guy who likes science -maybe not as much Michael- but enough that Michael wants to be able to sit next to him in class, nerd out with him and match him pun for pun.

Like the fact that Alex is beautiful, breathtakingly beautiful and Michael doesn’t know what to do with that. If it were anyone else, Michael would make bedroom eyes at them, and that would be that. Not to brag but Michael knows how to make things happen with the people he’s attracted to. And it’s not just that Alex is a guy. Though that is still a development he’s coming to grips with -it’s getting easier with every day that Alex insists on being perfect- it’s that there is something inside Michael that tells him that if he manages to get Alex’s attention, if he manages to taste Alex, his life will be altered forever. That the boy is going to be so important to Michael that he will never be the same afterward.

It makes him hesitate; he’s never wanted anything at such a basic level, he’s never really wanted anything at all because he knows better than to want what he can’t have. But he wants Alex; he wants his attention, his smiles, his puns, he wants everything.

Isobel notices it right way, she and Max might have their twin link, but she can read Michael just as well. This time around, he doesn’t think it’s her abilities but the fact that he's painfully obvious about his pining. She tells him so when she asks how long is he going to stare at the Manes boy and if he’s ever just going to grow a pair and drag Alex to the old eraser room the school doesn’t use anymore. He’d be embarrassed -and let’s face it he is- but he’s just grateful that she made it easy on him by bringing up his attraction, instead of him having to work up the nerve to talk about it.

She doesn’t look at him with too much judgment, and in the end, she shrugs saying he could do worse and that Alex is hot under all the emo angst.

The thing is he wants more than the eraser room and who’s to say Alex would even go for that? He wants to woo the guy; he wants to make him feel special because Alex _is_ special.

So he hesitates and watches and waits, and then he hears Liz ask Alex one day, ‘Want to hear a joke about sodium, bromine, and oxygen?’

To which he answered with a grin. “NaBrO,” before they both crack up and inspiration strikes.

It’s embarrassing and ridiculous, and something Max would do, but Michael is doing it anyway.

“I need you to slip a note in Alex’s bag for me,” he starts as he sits across from Isobel at lunch, she pauses, an orange wedge half way to her mouth.

“Finally maning up?” She asks as she takes her bite. “Good for you, it’s bad enough with Max and his heart eyes every time Liz Ortecho walks into a room, I can’t take you too.”

Michael rolls his eyes because no way is he as bad as Max, no way, he refuses to believe that. “So will you help?”

“Sure,” Isobel shrugs. “Give me the note.”

And see that should make him suspicious because Isobel never agrees to help so easily and he should know better. But he’s obviously not functioning at his genius level now that his brain is all Alex 24/7 because he just hands her the note and doesn’t think that she’ll open it, which she does faster then he can snatch it back.

He watches her read it quickly, his face red and hot when she looks at him with the most unimpressed look he has ever seen on her face, and that’s saying something since it’s Isobel Evans. She shows him his note, and he reads his chicken scratch.

_‘Are you made of copper and tellurium? Because you're CuTe.’_

"Micheal, are you really using the periodic table to awkwardly flirt with the emo boy?" Isobel asks incredulously.

“Maybe?” he mutters, feeling himself go redder as she stares at him.

"I officially quit being your sister; it's too embarrassing,” Isobel declares.

“If you don’t want to do it, Iz,” he starts, his shoulder tightening as he gets defensive and Isobel visibly softens.

“No, I’ll help,” she says, her tone tender as she reaches for his hand across the table. “You really like him, huh?”

Micheal stays quiet, not sure he can put his feelings into words, not when they feel so much bigger than him, but nods.

“ _Well then_ ,” Isobel starts “Let’s get you that walking, talking ‘Hot Topic’ catalog.” She gives him a wide determine smile, and Michael can’t help but smile back.

He doesn’t see Alex read the first note or the second, but he sees him open the third one because he doesn’t use Isobel for that one, he works up the nerve to drop the note one Alex’s notebook before class starts and watches out of the corner of his eye as Alex reads it.

_‘Are you a carbon sample? Because I want to date you.’_

He can feel Alex’s eyes on him on as the class starts, and he risks a look over at him. He’s not smiling, but he’s not frowning either. Instead, he raises an eyebrow at him in question and maybe a little challenge. Micheal can feel the blush from the top of his curls to below the neckline of his teeshirt, but he holds Alex’s gaze and nods at the note. Alex stares at him for another moment before looking back down at the note, his lips twitch, and Michael has to keep from fist-pumping when he sees the beginning of a smile.

Not exactly his daydream of Alex declaring his love for him back while the bunsen burners burn but it’s a start and Michael is running with it now that he knows his notes at the very least amuse Alex.

He slips the next note into Alex’s hand as he bumps into him on the way to his locker, he watches Alex read it: ‘ _If you were an element, you'd be Francium because you're the most attractive.’_ and winks at him before pulling his books out for his next class.

It continues for the next two weeks.

_Are you made of Fluorine, Iodine, and Neon? 'Cause you are F-I-Ne_

_Do you like Science? Because I've got my ion you_

_Your body must be made of oxygen and neon because you are the ONe._

_According to the second law of thermodynamics, you're supposed to share your hotness with me._

He’s not sure how many more of them he can come up with, but he’s willing to try and keep this up forever as long as Alex keeps smiling in his direction the way he does when he reads one, his face a soft shade of pink. Still, he hasn’t talked to Alex since he started this and he’s getting restless, his overtures seemed to be welcomed, and now all Michael wants is to feel Alex’s smile against his mouth, that blush under his fingertips.

Luckily for him, Alex seems to have the same idea, and he finds the boy one afternoon long after classes are over sitting on the tailgate of his truck behind the school where he’s parked. He takes the boy in, his usual black clothes, the chipped polish on his fingernails and the slightly smudged liner after a long day of classes, there is a small smile on his face when he spots Micheal that grows as Micheal stares at him.

“Hey, Guerin,” Alex calls out as he stops staring and come to stand in front of him. “Are you made of beryllium, gold, and titanium?” Alex asks, now with a smirk that lights Michael up, he knows where this is going so he smiles back hopelessly in love. “You must be because you are BeAuTi-ful.”

Not to be outdone, Michael smirks back at him. “I want to stick to you like glucose.”

Alex laughs, loud, warm and happy and it makes every cheesy line he’s been writing to the boy worth it because _he_ did that. He opens his mouth to throw another line, anything to keep that smile on Alex's face forever, but Alex has other ideas because he curls his fingers around the front of Michael’s shirt and tugs him forward, his lips covering Michael.

It’s everything Michael has been dreaming of and more; dimly, he realizes his earlier assessment of Alex is correct. With one kiss Alex is changing his world forever because now that he knows how soft his mouth is, that it tastes of peppermint gum and that Alex lets out a soft sound as they deepen the kiss, he’s done for. Michael knows that one kiss won’t be enough, that a lifetime of kissing the boy in front of him won’t be enough.

They end the kiss but not the embrace. Alex holds him close, his hands resting on Michael’s waist as he presses his forehead against his.

“Why?” Alex asks softly, sighing when Micheal presses small kisses at the corner of his mouth and down his jaw.

Michael pulls back and shrugs, another smile on his face. “Because when I'm near you, I undergo anaerobic respiration.”

Alex grins as he continues.

“You take my breath away.”

**Author's Note:**

> Elements:  
> Sodium – Na  
> Bromine – Br  
> Oxygen – O  
> Copper – Cu  
> Tellurium – Te  
> Fluorine – F  
> Iodine – I  
> Neon – Ne  
> Beryllium – Be  
> Gold – Au  
> Titanium – Ti
> 
> come say hi, over at my [tumblr](https://bellakitse.tumblr.com/)


End file.
